LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas –
Charles Thompson partakes in a sport that people may not know much about but has been around since the early 1900s, skeet shooting.
A member of the All-Air Force team, Thompson participated in the World Skeet Shooting Championships Sept. 30 through Oct. 7 at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio.
Thompson was on the second team All-Air Force Skeet Shooting team up until his outstanding performance in the individual events earned him an immediate spot on team one for team events at the World Skeet Shoot.
The staff sergeant, who works at the 690th Intelligence Support Squadron, placed first in two events - the Class A Browning 20 Gauge and the Krieghoff 28 Gauge.
"He was definitely the MVP for those two events," All-Air Force teammate and captain Andrew McNamara said. "He shined better than any of us.
As a member of the All-Air Force Skeet Shooting team, Thompson gets to participate in competitions with teammates he has shot with before and he is comfortable with.
Getting to know teammates' shooting patterns and getting a feel of how they think keeps Thompson on top of things, he said.
"Being around some teammates for years makes things much easier as far as team chemistry," he said.
Thompson got into skeet shooting when he was in high school, competing at the Olin Winchester range in East Alton, Ill.
After joining the Air Force, he honed his shooting skills at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., with help from his mentor, Bill Swanson, an Air Force retiree who'd also been on the All-Air Force team.
"He coached me and helped me develop my game to where it is today," Thompson said. "I didn't have a lot of consistency in my game, so my mentors taught me to practice - repeat, repeat and repeat.
"That's the only way to shoot skeet with any skill and have success," he added.
"You have to have a step-by-step checklist in your head ... so that (shooting) becomes automatic."
Thompson practices at least once a week.
"Whether I'm shooting by myself or with others at the club, I'll just go out, pick up a gun, and hit my four boxes of targets," he said. "At the end of the day, if there's something I want to work on some more, then I take the extra time."
Thompson competed seriously in the sport in 2006 while stationed in Washington, D.C. He joined the All-Air Force Skeet Shooting team in 2008, where he improved his skeet shooting by going to more shoots to perfect a craft he enjoys immensely.
"There's just something about being out (on the range). You're shooting targets, and you're just making them explode," he said. "It's amazing every time, and it never gets old.
"When you go out there and you know you're doing well, everything just flows," he said. "You're taking targets, tearing them into itty bitty pieces. Making targets just disappear out of the sky is just an awesome feeling for me."